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The Commoner.
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Entered tt the postofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska, m second
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THE COMMONER, LUrcela.Nek
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.
Itecent events indicate lhat frenzied, finance
Is sexless.
It is not too early to begin the work of organ
king for the campaigns of 1906 and 1908.
In a couple of days we can refer to -it as "the
defeat of last year," and that will help some.
Senator Depew Is strenuously objecting to th
Odellification of his carefully railrpadified sena
torial boom.
The chief spokesman of the "safe and sane"
element seem to have suddenly become silent and
meditative.
Senator Smoot seems to realize that he has
no need to worry as long as ho can keep his
present politics on straight
To a great many people it will appear that
Mr. Thomas W. Lawson is being sued for libel
merely for spectacular purposes.
The Smoot investigation so far seems to havo
included about everything save Mrs. Chadwick,
"frenzied finance" and Reed S'moot.
Mr. Schwab Is reported to have purchased a
pair of $50 shoes. Can it be that Mr. Lawson is
making them walk the floor that way?
Every time you pay for a ton of anthracite
are you not convinced that It is high time the
president do a little more Intervening?
One of the humorous things of the day is the
spectacle of a Colorado republican organ denounc
ing the "counting out" process of the south.
The Russian Baltic fleet ha3 arrived at Cape
Good Hope. It Is the first time a Russian fleet
has been anywhere near Hope for some time.
The trouble experienced in getting rid of Judge
Swayne is another argument in favor of electing
Judges for fixed terms by vote of the people.
Dr. Lyman Abbott Is not the first man to
make the mistake of thinking himself called upon
to make the bible a mere literary production.
Owing to circumstances over which they could
have had control had they so desired, the people
of Now York are now compelled to stand to one
side and watch the big corporations scrambling
for a senatorship.
The eminent gentlemen who are so opposed
to the boycot when wielded by union labor are
now using it on the advertisers who patronize the
magazines that Insist on exposing graft and "fren
Eled finance." The ownership of the ox still cut
an important figure.
Recently The Commoner asked for Information
concerning the book entitled "Ten Men of Money
Island." Some BOO readers have our thanks for
.informing us that the author. Col. S. F. Norton,
lives at 544 Ogden avonue, Chicago, and parties
desiring copies of the book may address bim there.
the Commoner.
Chief Engineer Wallace favors building the
Panama canal on the level. But doing govern
ment work "on the level" is rather Unusual, is it
not?
The Chicago Chronicle declares that it is the
only republican daily newspaper in the Windy
city. Chicago seems to be growing better all the
time.
The fact that th railroads oppose giving the
interstate commerce commission the power to fix
rates is a very good reason why the power should
be given.
One reason lor feeling good this Christmas is
the demonstrated fact that it is possible for some
one to make the Standard Oil crowd pay some
attention.
If the people owned the railroads the senate
would have no excuse for guaranteeing the interest
on railroad bonds for the benefit of Wall street
financiers.
The dismissal of a postal clerk for trying to
influence legislation is not a convincing sign that
others not in the postal service must quit lob
bying for special interests.
Senator Piatt views with complacency all ef
forts to establish a parcel3 post system. Uncle
Tom Is right on the spot when it comes to taking
care of the express companies.
It is a great deal easier for a court to convict
some workingman for conspiracy than it is for the
government to get after the men who conspire to
control the necessaries of life.
It would seem that the Smoot Investigation is
taking in a whole lot of ground in order to skip
mention of the agreement by which the Mormon
vote was secured to the g. o. p.
The Blue and the Gray will come together in
Washington on May 10, 1905. They would have
come together in the same place some forty-four
years ago if the Blues hadn't beat 'em to It.
The inaugural ball will be a great event, but
the spectacle of the trusts being led a merry dance
by the legal department of the government is seem
ingly an awfully long distance in the future.
Congressman Hull 'says Secretary Shaw will
be a candidate for the republican presidential nom
ination. But why should Congressman Hull put it
in the future instead of the present tense?
Every day's delay in prosecuting the coal trust
is costing the people of this country more than a
million dollars. The legal department of this re
public seems to be a very expensive luxury.
Victims of the Humbert swindle in Paris will
receive 2 cents on the dollar. This is about 20
mills on the dollar more than the average man
gets back after he tries to beat the game on Wall
street.
R. K. Lumpkin of Sanford, Fla,, writes to ask
if the skin of the fresh water gar fish 'has any
market value. If any Commoner reader can an
swer the query Mr. Lumpkin will be glad to re
ceive it-
Mr. H. H. Rogers says his only intention in
suing Lawson for libel Is to enforce respect for
the dead. If Mr. Rogers -will have a little more
regard for the living he will bo entitled to heart
felt thanks.
Japan assures the world that she is only try
ing to drive Russia out of Manchuria, but "mani
fest desUny" winks the other eye and is preparing
to camp with the Japs permanently as soon as the
Russians havo been pushed back.
. Mr. Ware seems to have found the pension
comml88lonership burdensome because It gave him
no time to write poetry and he was unable to insti
tute business methods. This was enough to dis
courage any poet and business man.
President Eliot ' Harward is not at all back
ward in expressing his opposition to trades union-
1 -. vs. . Ism: and Ws latest argument
Logic Thcxt against it Is that trades unions
la Deviously seek to "restrict output" That is
Complex a charge that deserves attention.
But if trades unions are deserv
ing of censure for "restricting output." why doe3
President Eliot so carefully refrain from denounc-
50
.VOLUME 4, NUMBER
ling other organizations for doine th M
Let prices-fall and business stagnate a?
and immediately men like President VL re,SuIt
us that "overproduction" is the wufS0"11
more we produce from nature theoorTr the
If manufacturers practice "restriction of Z are
and are held blameless by Presiden? Sh 5put"
should ho not hold trades unions hi?1' wh
practicing the same thing. The Tglc 0T ?8
our learned educators is extremelv S ffl T of
follow. The statement that e Tore T to
from nature the less nature givs ml2 prodnctt
that the average- man is not to be llmTf mp ex
failure to understand it, and yet that if 1 r ,hls
university presidents, wrtEJ
ers have been preaching to the publi for I CS
tury or more. r a ce&"
- The ..
Vote In
Missouri
President Roosevelt vote in Mimi
on about 00 frtnVZC
being less than the normal in
crease in the republican popula
tion) while the democratic vota
Was npnrlv kk nnn ir, i ..
was in 1900. The fain made by "the populists ana
by the socialists did not equal the falling off in the
democratic vote. Many democrats stayed at home
they ought not to have done so, but they will bo
out two years from now and four years from now
and then the republicans will have to take a back
seat again. In the meantime Governor Folk will
be at Jefferson City to prevent the republicans
from carrying off the state.
A Question
of Motive
Involved
It is sometimes difficult to keep track of Presi
dent Roosevelt's intentions. When he Intervened
m tne coal strike we were given
to understand that he was actu
ated by the desire to relieve the
coal famine. That he acknowl
edged the Dlaudita nf Hip non.
pie who so believed would naturally lead one to
believe that such was his motive. But a little
later ho called attention to the fact that his
intorveutjcn went a long ways towards preserv
ing the mines to the coal trust, because his actioa
prevented the movement foi public ownership of
those mines from becoming Irresistible. The ques
tion now antics, did the president intervene in
order to. avei c the coal famine, or did he Intervene
in order to save the mines to the coal trust?
Heroes Who
Are Serving
Well
The Journal of the American Medical Associa
tion says that the medical profession is gradually
abandoning the idea that tho
cure of tuberculosis is dependent
on climatic conditions. The
Journal further declares that
abundant food, fresh air aud
rest are the essentials of such a cure and that these
may be applied practically in all climates. Con
sumption, "the white death." is being considered
more and more by the medical profession, and any
thing calculated to lessen its ravages will bo hailed
with joy. The men who are devoting their lives
to the study of the dread disease and seeking to
find a cure, are more deserving of medals and
monuments than those whose chief desire Is to ac
quire territory and power by sword and musket.
Recently two employes of tho postal depart
ment were summarily dismissed by the presidents
order on the ground that they
Took The had sought improperly to influ-
Wronrf Course ence congressmen in the benau
irvlrfr,iv P Pstal employes One need go
Evidently bw lntQ history only a few brief
years to find an incident which clearly shows tfta
the dismissed employes made a mistake in tneu
tactics They should have joined with their ie -low
employes in signing a "round robin. y e
recall that something like six years ago a suwiu -nate
officer of the United States army, a lieutenant
colonel, we beiieve, sought to Influence not oni.
congress but the war department and the genei
public, by participating in a "round robin. i
dismissed postal employes thought they were w
ing to right a wrong. .The lieutenant colonel re
ferred to doubtless thought the same ? wie
he attached his name to the "round robin, we u
not recall that the lieutenant colonel was
marily bounced for his impudence and temer -j.
On the contrary, we believe he has since baa
promotions, the first to bo a colonel, and we b
ond to be commander In chief of the army anu
navy.
Having selected Mr. Morton, the railroad man,
to assist him in preventing the practice 01 ireib
rebates, the president should ow select . Mn
or Mr. Morgan to assist in the work of preveuu
stock speculations
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